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The bigots must be seen to pay a high price for their insults

IT is no surprise to any observer of Gaelic football that it was verbal abuse which caused Darren Graham to take the drastic decision to quit playing for his club Lisnaskea Emmetts.

There has been an increase in this form of unsporting behaviour in the past few years and in several televised games viewers have watched prominent intercounty players from various counties engage in verbal taunting of opponents.

What is unusual, however, is that the taunting of Graham was sectarian and based on the fact that he is a Protestant playing Gaelic football.

Over the years many Protestants and other non-Catholics have played GAA games and occupied prominent positions in the organisation with no adverse reaction from the wider GAA family.

Sam Maguire was a Protestant as was Jack Boothman a distinguished GAA President.

Many Protestants have played the game and were never treated differently because of their religion. Therefore it is a worrying development that this young man should be subjected to sectarian abuse from some other club players in Co Fermanagh.

Clearly his family history in relation to his late father and uncles is a factor herebut for the GAA this provides an opportunity to take a really firm stand against sectarian abuse.

The GAA has a primary rule which states that the organisation is non-sectarian and there are enough rules to severely punish any player who would breach such rules with sectarian abuse.

However, what the public at large will be watching for is the actual will of the GAA to use their own rules to nip this disgusting conduct in the bud.

Based on their reluctance to do anything to punish intercounty stars who were seen to be verbally taunting opponents in big matches, one cannot be very confident that they will bite the bullet on this one.

Already there has been a bit of buck-passing with the Ulster Council saying it is a matter for the Fermanagh Board.

The GAA has been reaching out to Protestants in the North since the peace process developed, which is admirable.

However, if they really want to convince the doubters about their bone fides then they must move at the highest level to deal with this incident and lay down an unequivocal marker to show that sectarian abuse will not be tolerated by the GAA anywhere.

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